The hull of the Cumberland was systematically blown apart after the war, as explained in Archeology Magazine, in the Sept/Oct. 1987 issue, pp. 50-8, entitled "Civil War Legacy Beneath the Waves", by Samuel G. Margolin. Page 54 tells us:
"... After the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Federal government was anxious to determine the feasibility of raising the sunken remains of the Cumberland. As early as March 21, 1862, a New York salvage firm had been approached, but the actual primary evaluation of the wreck was conducted in May by a Massachusetts salvage diver, Loring Bates.His report, the earliest account of conditions the sunken warship, stated that 'the Cumberland lies in sixty-six feet of water, deeply imbedded in the mud, healed to an angle of forty-five ... the water is very thick and it was with some difficulty that we could get about ... everything appears in confusion.'
Bates concluded that the damage sustained by the vessel was too extensive to justify the cost of raising her. Accordingly, the government sold the rights of recovery a succession of salvage firms whos efforts over the course of a decade with limited , or at best, questionable success. The primary objective was to retrieve the paymasters safe, reportedly containing a minimum of $40, 000 in gold specie. Despite a Detroit salvage company's claim to have located and raised the safe in 1875, George B. West, a Newport News resident who's memoirs contain the only known eyewitness account of post Cvil War salvage activities in the Hampton Roads area, observed no-one ever knew 'what was done with the safe, and it was never reported that any gold was taken from it.'
West's memoirs also offer a rare glimpse of the modus operandi of the 19th century salvage diver as well as the hazards associated with his profession. A German salvors' plan to reach the safe was to begin under the stern of the wreck and progressively blow his way - by detonating a series of charges - to the paymasters cabin."
Now we know why the Cumberland's hull is in such bad shape!
"George West's only account [of the Florida] informs us that the commerce raider was 'stripped by divers' after the war ... [and] 'She must have been magnificently built, for the divers said the state rooms were very handsomely decorated. ' "